House Wahrheialte

Contents

Overview

"With wisdom we conquer."

—The Creed of Wahrheialte

Their creed shows in their attitude toward most things in life, they believe that balance is one of the keys to wisdom and thus they enjoy some human pursuits but never indulge to excess. They usually dress like simple businessmen, avoiding the open displays of wealth shown by so many other Rogue Traders instead showing their wealth through large acts of generosity.

They despise slavery and believe that loyalty should work both ways, once hired an employee is expected to earn their pay, but should also be rewarded for doing their work well.

They also value knowledge and their
leadership is known to collect rare works of literature and art, especially prizing works from lost worlds.

They ply the space lanes that connect the Nerio Sector to her outside trading partners in the Tricamerate Pact the Exile Sector and Fidea Prime as they have for centuries and their names are woven into the history of the Sector’s chief worlds. A previous house head was among those to fund reconstruction on Gallius, and his son Dominic was among the visitors to the doomed planetoid before its destruction.

At
present they maintain their position as the Nerio Sector’s sole Rogue Trader House, using their wealth to assist in reconstructing the damage done by the 13th Black Crusade.

Notable House Members

Dominic Wahrheialte

Eager to reap the benefits of his father's work he visited Gallius once every year, giving himself a few days away from the stresses of running his business. The first to establish the more humble mode of dress favored by House members he often stood
out among his more flamboyant relatives.

While in his younger days he was known to be reckless and irresponsible in his personal life, enjoying the company of Indigo Heart girls while indulging in Syprian wine and other liquors, often to excess. However as he grew older he grew tired of such things and in his later years he would write that his experiences had given him

""The words of our creed- I have grown wiser with age. May my children and those to follow me learn and conquer where I could not.""

—Taken from his personal Journals

Already close to a century old when he married, he would still have several children and so he passed leadership of his house to his eldest son.

Darius Wahrheialte

He is the current house head and so he has continued his house's long standing friendship with the people of the Nerio Sector. It was Darius who ordered his fleet and his House Guard into battle
against Chaos invaders. Though young and personally inexperienced he learned all his ancestors had to teach and so he nonetheless personally commanded a warship squadron as they fought in
the skies above Necro.

Like his ancestors he lives by their creed and finds wisdom in balance. Unafraid to delegate but also unafraid to handle his affairs directly, he is not a man to be trifled with for he commands an army and fleet.

He is also a capable fighter in his own right-favoring a simple, slate gray Thunderchild Bolt Pistol alongside an heirloom basket hilted powersword.

Amareo

Current commander of The House Guard, he is well known among his coworkers as well as their rivals. He is believed to the last member of an otherwise extinct Medici noble house but as he was raised in an orphanage there are no records of his family or his first name.

Marked by short dark hair and a forked scar that bisects his face, these draw attention away from dark eyes that display a fierce intelligence and he has used this to his House's advantage time and again. They assume him to be simply hired muscle and not capable of outsmarting them.

Though he is in only in his early thirties he is nonetheless a capable fighter and leader,a trait seen by his immediate predecessor. He is feared by many and respected by all.

Nancy Browne

A female Homo Ima Vipera employed by the House Darius purchased her from a former master,set her free from bondage and drug addiction and gave her a job. While sometimes called to entertain, or distract,guests with her dance skills or keep trading rivals off balance with her mere presence she is primarily an accountant.

Like all Vipera her eyes have vertical slit pupils, she wears sunglasses to keep them hidden and to block out extra light. Like all of her people trapped in servitude her fangs were forcibly removed when she was a child. Like Amareo she too is more than she appears. She has a keen financial mind and while she has never had to fight she is more than capable of it as she has training with both a laspistol and pair of custom made knives she keeps in her desk drawer.

House Guard

Wahrheialte House Guardsman

As the House’s defensive focus lies within its small warship fleet they field only a few hundred
men to protect their leadership- one of the many thousands of armsmen and gunners aboard either their cargo or military assets must earn their place among them.

Keeping in line with their Creed of conquering with wisdom these 525 men are outfitted with the best their employers can buy, wearing Carapace armor and carrying Thunderchild Pattern bolt pistols to supplement their standard lasguns. Highly trained and highly motivated the House Guard are
the equal of any Imperial Guard Stromtrooper.

*Storm Trooper Carapace Armour(2x)

*Helmet with respirator(2x)- they are issued two sets of armor- one for everyday use and another one to be kept clean and in good order for formal occasions.

*Hotshot lasgun(Lucius Pattern)/M36 Kantrael lasgun

*Heromus Pattern laspistol/ Thunderchild pattern bolt pistol

while other Thunderchild pattern bolt pistols are heirlooms in the hands of families descended from refugees they remain a standard sidearm for the House Guard while others favor the more rugged and durable Heromus pattern laspistol, produced en masse on Corbonis

*Chain Knife- intended to a step above what most of their enemies carry every member of the House Guard is well trained in its use and the use of other more mundane blades.

Overseen by Commander Amareo and four Sub-Commanders the remaining men are divided into ten units of fifty men each commanded by a "Line Commander" and a "Line Sub-Commander." The fifty other men in these units are divided into five squads of ten men each.

House History

Founding(M39)

The history of the house can be traced to M39 and the Mercantile Principalities of the planet Azerati. House Warheialte, a prominent merchant family living aboard their ships had long aspired to rule. They received their chance when they came under attack by pirates- counterattacking immediately they conquered the pirate stronghold,making it their own and convincing the surviving raiders to swear loyalty to them, arguably the first incarnation of their warship squadrons.

Over the next thousand years they slowly became more and more wealthy, conquering other pirate fleets and buying out their financial rivals, becoming the wealthiest and most influential family on the entire planet. Early M40 saw enormous changes come to Azerati. Solar flares would render the planet uninhabitable for millenia to come and so her people scattered to the stars, never to return to their doomed homeworld. House Wahrheialte would lead the exodus, once again living aboard their ships.

Already wealthy enough to be considered Rogue Traders at this point they chose the nearby Nerio Sector as their base of operations, becoming an integral part of their history.

Zhokkor Trade War(731 M41)

So named because of the Ork Freeboota's threat to the Nerio Sector's trade it saw the House's fleet fight alongside elements of Battlefleet Medici in hunting him down. The conflict lasted for just under a year and ended with Zhokkor's death at the hands of the House Guard who infiltrated the Freeboota's flagship during a pitched battle and with several well placed explosive charges breached the hull ejecting him into space where a Thunderbolt pilot finished the Ork with a torpedo.

Thirteenth Black Crusade

Their
long standing friendship with the people of the Nerio Sector led the House to
rush to their aid when they were attacked during the 13th Black Crusade- lending one of their warship squadrons- three Dauntless class Light
Cruisers and nine Firestorm Frigates to battle the invading fleet while
sending their household guard into battle alongside the Bellatorum in Tenebris where they faced the might of The Chaos Sorcerer Abathal "Prophet of the Undivided".

Veridianus Forest

Deployed on the Western Flank of an advancing mass of cultists their path took them through the bioluminescent Forest, where unknown to them a force outnumbering them four to one lay in wait. The 525 men of the House Guard held firm against waves of attacks, including something worse than any of them had ever seen.

Many of these cultists were living bio weapons,infected with terrible plagues and their bodies burst under sustained fire, killing Line Commander Tyrezian Reese and several others. The rest stood firm, leaving behind no survivors. Amareo, a chain dagger in each hand, dueled an aspiring champion with a chainaxe and won.

They emerged from the burning forest covered in blood and with their armor badly damaged and unsure of their health. The took advantage of their enemy's distracted state, overwhelming the few guards left behind at their camp, burning it and freeing hundreds of slaves. They had lost only fifteen men in the entire exchange and so they kept pushing, taking the liberated slaves back to the Fortress of Light before going into battle again.

Embershard Islands

Barely capable of supporting life, The Embershard Islands still contained the city of Embershard, home to tens of thousands of people. With all other defenders deployed elsewhere it fell to the House Guard to defend it. They and the Arbites in the city fought from atop the city walls and skyscrapers, buying time for reinforcements to arrive. They never did and so they fought alone, holding for four days. The battle killed 12,000 cultists and hundreds of innocent Imperial citizens. Enemy artillery tore large gaps in the defensive wall and destroyed the top floors of many of the skyscrapers but reconstruction began almost immediately after the battle ended.

Cobalt Channel

They joined the 31st and 32nd Fidea Infantry at the Battle of The Cobalt Channel. Abathal's surviving forces some 6000 men intended to cross, loot and burn the meager fishing villages along its banks and then poison the city of Sol-Crystalis with debris and the bodies of the civilians they planned to murder.

Kyösti
Rehn of the Fidea 32nd was among those killed in the fighting. His death was not in vain as it came only after he killed the Sorcerer. Abathal used his last breath to conjure a bolt of lightning that hit the unfortunate soldier but the damage had already been done, without their leader the Cultists scattered and were cut down by other Fidea soldiers who hoped to avenge their fallen comrade The House Guard sent a vox message to the city, asking for entry and somewhere for they, the Fidea and the suddenly homeless citizens, could stay. Their requested was granted and the battered Imperial forces remained there for the rest of the conflict.